Invest sales training, product training and sales enablement that helps build business acumen if you want your sales team to stand out from the sea of generic cold callers and product pitchers.
So many salespeople work hard to cold call, connect, book appointments and then fall flat in the credibility department. Business decision makers demand more than a good product demo, they want to understand the business impact of anything they invest in.
A high level of investment in business acumen is required for any team that’s in Business to Business (B2B) Sales. This involves not only product knowledge but also understanding our market segment and how our solution uniquely impacts the business motivations of our target market.
Video short of Shane Gibson sales trainer talking about business acumen:
Our salespeople truly need to know this if they are going to have powerful conversations and move from merely taking orders and selling on price to becoming trusted advisors who partner with their clients to develop competitive solutions.
To achieve this, we need to establish a strong program for building business acumen within our sales team. This does not necessarily mean we need to hire experts from the industry, but we must have a strategy and process in place to educate them, either by ourselves or in partnership with our vendors.
Sales training and sales enablement that builds business acumen can include:
- Shadowing senior reps
- Vendor education programs
- Attending seminars, conferences, and trade shows that focus on the industries they are targeting
- Webinars and online courses that their target companies and decision makers attend
- Product or service case studies
- Following influencers and authors that your target market follows
- Existing client interviews
- Role Plays and research projects that focus on subject matter expertise
Final thought: Make sure your track and measure your sales team’s business acumen training and enablement. As the old adage goes, what gets measured gets improved. If you want the business acumen training and enablement to stick make sure you use individual development plans and learning KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure and track progress.
About the author:
Shane Gibson is a Vancouver based sales author, sales trainer and keynote speaker. He is also CEO of The Professional Sales Academy an international sales training company with clients in Canada, USA, South America, Southern Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
